Open end to atmosphere

Published: 08 May, 2014

At the recent Air-Tech exhibition, BEKO TECHNOLOGIES gave a presentation entitled “open end to atmosphere”.

This presentation gave advice about the issues of having an air supply at say 7 bar (g) venting down to atmosphere without doing any useful work or work that cannot be done more economically or safely by another medium. An example of this would be the use of blow guns to clean machinery down at the end of a production period i.e. could be three times per day. This practice was widespread and was wasteful in that the dirt/dust would resettle, the pressure was not often regulated and it is a potentially dangerous practice particularly if the operative has an open sore then compressed air can be potentially lethal. There is a simple answer, use a vacuum attachment to the airline or a “venturi” assisted type which increases the flow at reduced pressure.